DE 42 23 898 A1 shows a roof rail which consists of a boom with sustainers sitting on its ends. Each sustainer consists of a hollow sustaining body with a floor plate which is arranged on a receiving unit fastened within a hollow of the sustaining body. An insert is seated within a breach of the floor plate. The insert has bore provided with an internal thread which fastens the rail to a threaded bolt provided on the vehicle's roof.
DE 31 23 106 shows a base for the sustainer of a roof rail which can be placed on a motor vehicle. The base consists of a gasket sheet, a pressure plate arranged over it, and a collar which directly abuts the sustainer and engages the pressure plate. These each have a passageway for a fastening bolt arranged on the rail's foot. The gasket sheet, pressure plate, and collar are also fastened to each other by fastening means. Thus, a glued joint can be provided between the gasket sheet and pressure plate, and a plug-type connector between the pressure plate and collar. A threaded bolt can be provided for preassembling the entire multiple-piece base on the sustainer. This bolt goes through a bore of the gasket sheet which has a smaller diameter than the bolt. But the threaded bolt requires a recess with an internal thread within the sustainer, so that the sustainer must be sturdily built or be equipped with an inserted part depicted in DE 42 23 898 A1 which must be manufactured separately and fastened to the sustainer.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a sustainer, equipped ready for assembly with base and threaded bolt, which is simple and economical to manufacture, and in which the base is supported in the proper position and safe for moving without expensive gluing or the like.
To solve the problem in accordance with the invention, a sustainer for a roof rail arranged on a motor vehicle is provided with a hollow sustaining body, a floor plate designed on the sustaining body, a base abutting the floor plate, and a fastener locally engaging underneath the base. The floor plate has a first opening for locally inserting the fastener into the hollow space of the sustaining body and a second opening for tightly engaging a compensating element like a supporting dome at one end. A female thread is designed or arranged on the fastener into which a threaded bolt, going through and supporting itself on the compensating element, can be screwed. By screwing the bolt into the thread, the threaded end of the fastener can be pulled toward the inside of the floor plate and the other end, which is offset step-by-step, can be pulled toward the outside of the floor plate with a base area included.
The sustainer in accordance with the invention is a single-piece materially-uniform component of metal or possibly of plastic, and contains a hollow sustaining body with a floor plate designed on it. The base can be fastened on the sustainer and the sustainer can be fastened to the vehicle's roof by only a single fastener which cooperates with one threaded bolt.
It is appropriate for the fastener to consist of a sheet metal strip, which has a step-shaped offset, approximately as thick as the floor plate, approximately in the middle and which, at one end, is provided with a female thread that is designed as an extruded hole or that consists of a weld nut or stamped nut. Such a fastener is understandably very easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
In accordance with one development of the invention, the fastener can have a bent material tab on the threaded end. This measure mainly serves to increase the fastener's firmness and stiffness.
A further development of the invention provides for the fastener to have a free punched positioning catch bent downwards. This makes it easier to position the fastener, especially in consideration of reliably meeting the female thread.
In accordance with another development of the invention, the base may have an oblong recess which is at least as wide as the width of the fastener, is bridged by a web at one longitudinal end, and is limited at its other longitudinal end by a free punched, doubly bent, tongue that the fastener can engage. The bridging of the web allows the fastener to pass through easily and guarantees that the base will press tightly-sealed against the sustainer in cooperation with the tongue that engages the fastener from below.
The base can be fashioned of a rubber or plastic material, but also of a combination of these materials if necessary. A combination can be preferable, for example, if the base has a surrounding collar nestling itself against the sustainer's wall in accordance with a further development of the invention.
A particularly preferable further development of the invention consists in that the sustaining body with floor plate consists of one high-pressure molded part. In this case, it can furthermore be particularly advantageous for the sustaining body to be designed as a single-piece with a second sustaining body shaped as its mirror-image and connected across a railing boom. The scope of the invention also provides that a plastic roof rail may be used, consisting of one sustainer or two sustainers and one boom connecting these together single-pieced and materially-uniform, whereby the sustainer or the roof rail can be manufactured as plastic injection molded parts using the gas-filled internal pressure process.